Author's Note: Please vote and comment :)

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         The air was heavy when Brodhi woke up, and he felt like he was suffocating. A bright light shone down on top of him and his eyes burned. He squinted his eyes and slowly let them open, as the brightness of the light seemed to ease. He made out three long strips of light stuck to the ceiling.

A pain was in his neck and ran all the way down his back. He shifted his weight to roll onto his side. A gasp escaped his lips, as his body wouldn't budge. His arms were stuck out a way from him, and when he tried to turn his head his neck screamed out in pain. It wouldn't move either. He frantically tried to move his eyes from side to side to see what was going on. It felt like he was paralysed and he panicked that that was true.

Slowly, he curled his fingers into his hand and back out. Relief washed over him. He wasn't paralysed like he thought. As he tried to turn his wrist he felt something tightly wrapped around his arms. He tried moving the rest of his body and discovered that he was completely tied down. He tried thrashing his body around to loosen up the bands. It had no effect and caused his arms and legs to ache more. He cursed out loud.

"Take it easy there, Buddy," he heard a voice come from his left. He tried to turn his head quickly, but it just caused another pain to explode in his neck. He didn't know anyone else was in the room with him.

"Where am I?" his hoarse voice managed to croak out. A strip of burn burned down his throat and he bit down on his lip.

"In the hospital," the male voice told him.

Brodhi let his mind race back to what had happened. He remembered Cendrowski in the Market talking about research, and then him and Lynn going to the hospital.

Lynn!

He couldn't believe that he forgot about her. She's probably tied down to a table somewhere, just like him. Cendrowski told them that she was about to give birth any day. What if she already had? What if they had their baby tied down somewhere too? He can't believe that he let this happen.

"How long have I been here?" Brodhi asked the voice.

"No clue," he said. "Haven't been awake much longer than you."

"Are you tied up too?"

"Yeah."

They stayed silent and Brodhi still struggled under the restraints. He gritted his teeth together to stop himself from screaming out in pain as it burned into his flesh. The sweat built up on his forehead and he was struggling to breathe in the hot, thick air.

"What's your name?" the man asked him after a while.

"It's Brodhi. Yours?" he said.

"Sawyer."

A noise came from the other side of the room and Brodhi's instinct was to turn his head to see what it was. Pain shot through his neck as he tried to twist it around. Sawyer moaned in pain as he tried to do the same thing.

"Good morning boys," Kirby's said as he approached them. His shoes clicked across the ground as he walked in between them. Brodhi and Sawyer were each tied down onto a metal table a meter apart.

Kirby came into view, blocking the bright light out of Brodhi's eyes. His heart jumped in his chest when he first saw him. Kirby had a large white suit on that made him look much bigger than he was. A large plastic dome covers his head and a small wire was hooked around his ear.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, looking at the both of them.

They both stayed quiet and stared at him. Kirby kept looking back and forth between them.

"The point of this experiment will be a little lost if you two don't tell me about your symptoms," he explained to them, but neither said anything. "Now if you're not going to tell me yourself, I'll have to get this information another way. We have Eden and Lynn."

"Don't you dare touch her," Sawyer snarled at him. Brodhi was going to threaten him too, but Sawyer had cut him off before he had the chance to speak.

"She can be part of these experiments too if you don't want to cooperate," Kirby warned him. "The same goes for you Brodhi. Lynn or her baby can be useful to this experiment."

Brodhi curled his fingers into his hands as he balled them up into a fist. He felt every muscle in his body tighten. Not only did Kirby just threaten Lynn, but also his unborn baby. Well at least he didn't think he or she was born yet. Cendrowski told them that she was going to have her baby soon, and he didn't know how long he was unconscious for. Lynn could have had the baby and he wasn't even there for her.

"Where's Cendrowski?" Brodhi asked Kirby.

"He's observing," he said pointing over his shoulder with his thumb. "Putting a man of his brilliance in this kind of danger was out of the question, so I'm going to vaccinate the both of you."

"Vaccinate us against what?" Sawyer asked.

Kirby walked away from them, but Brodhi could the sound of metal clicking together. Brodhi's heartbeat and breath grew quicker as he continued to fight against the restraints. He had to get out of there and go find Lynn. He should have never brought them here.

"The Virus," Kirby told them.

His shoes continued to click as he walked back over to the tables. Brodhi could see that he was holding up a large syringe full of a light purple liquid.

"Either of you having a headache?" he asked them.

They both stayed quiet as Kirby kept the syringe held up in the air.

"Remember about the girls," he said threateningly.

"I do," Brodhi said through his teeth. The painful throbbing in his temple had been terrorizing him ever since he had regained consciousness.

"Same," Sawyer mumbled.

"Good. I hope you two realize how easy this is now," Kirby told them.

He asked them a series of more questions, and Brodhi and Sawyer kept giving him the same answer. Kirby went out of view and Brodhi felt a sharp prick in his arm. His body flinched, but the restraints were so tight that his arm didn't move.

A heavy weight filled his arm and it began to ache. His fingers began to feel numb and the feeling ran down his arms. His eyelids began to feel heavy and he was fighting with them to keep them open. He had to stay awake and find a way to get out of these restraints. He wanted to find Lynn and get out of this hospital as quickly as he possibly could.

Kirby's shoes were continuing to click across the floor, as his eyelids grew even heavier. Darkness began to wash over him as he lost consciousness again.

--

One of Shai's favourite things about Mikko's house was that you couldn't hear the bell ringing for Curfew. You couldn't hear anything from the Slums this far away. It was like that none of it existed. There was no fear of Officers or being arrested. She liked it out here. Once they found Todd she was going to try and convince him to move out here. She knew that he never would, he liked being near the Market. He always seemed to enjoy that risk of being caught, but that only got them to where they are now.

Shai had trouble sitting still all day as Mikko finished up cracking the system for the camp. Soon they'd break in and take Tegan out and soon they'd be freeing Todd. She hoped at least. Shai never trusted anyone and she knew that Mikko was most likely going to abandon them after they give him Tegan. She was already prepared to threaten his life if he wasn't going to save Todd's.

Jasper and Shai were outside learning how to use the guns that they had stolen from the Officers. Neither of them had ever touched a gun before and they quickly learned how to work them. They had stolen little figures they had found in Mikko's house. They were missing arms, legs, or head and Shai and Jasper aimed at them. They weren't sure how many bullets were in the guns so they didn't fire many shots.

Inside the house Mikko was frantically running around and tapping on the screens on in his tiny room. Shai peeked in a few times to see one screen showing an orchard of trees. There were Rats in dirty brown uniforms up in the trees. They almost blended in with the trunk and were hidden amongst the leaves. They were plucking fruit off a tree and putting it in a bag that was strung across their shoulders. If this is the camp that Tegan was in it didn't look that bad. She wished that all Todd had to do was pick fruit.

"Shai," Jasper's voice caught her off guard and she realized how intensely she was staring at the screen.

Mikko had his back turned to her and was typing letters onto the screen. She was leaning up against the doorframe. Jasper slipped his arm around her side and rested his chin on her shoulder.

"What?" she asked quietly.

"You ready for this?" he asked her.

They spoke softly enough so that Mikko couldn't hear them. She seriously doubted he would even say anything if he did. He was concentrating to hard to be bothered.

"Course I am," she told him. "I hate this waiting. I want to leave now."

"Couple hours and we'll be gone," he said.

"Done!" Mikko exclaimed.

"Okay, maybe less than a couple hours," Jasper said wryly.

Shai shook Jasper off of her quickly and walked into the room. Mikko had pulled that little gadget out of his pocket and had a huge grin across his face.

"Let's go then," Shai said eagerly.

"Whoa," he said holding up a hand to her. "There are still a few things I need to teach you. My portion of this work is done, now you two need to prepare."

"But you said we were leaving tonight," she protested.

"We are and whining is only going to delay that. You are going to enter the camp and release that gas I gave you the other night. The only way you can get in there is by pretending to be an Officer, that's why you took the uniforms. But there are some pretty big problems that are making this difficult.

"Jasper," he said turning his attention to Jasper who had his arms crossed and was leaning up against the doorframe. "You could pass for an Officer if you shaved your head. That is until you open your mouth. That chipped tooth wouldn't be allowed; they would have fixed it. But you aren't a concern. You're mostly going to wait in the car for Shai to come back with Tegan."

"Shai's not goin' in alone," Jasper interrupted.

Shai turned her head and scowled at him. She didn't need Jasper protecting her; she actually preferred that he was staying in the car. He was less likely to be hurt or killed that way. Brodhi told her that if anything happened to him it would be her fault, and she knew that. If she couldn't stop him at least he wasn't in immediate danger.

"She has to," Mikko said. "Someone needs to be ready to drive away as soon as they're out and you're the only one who knows how to work a car. So quit complaining.

"Now Shai," he said turning his attention back on her. "I've noticed that you are a woman."

"What gave it away?" she said.

"Women would never be able to become Officers," he said completely ignoring her remark. "All of your hair has to come off."

Shai subconsciously grabbed the knot that she had earlier tied her back into. She had never cut her hair short, and simply she never wanted to. But if it was what was going to get Todd out she would.

She opened her mouth to agree.

"However, after spending way too much time with women I've learned that they would never do something like that," he had said before she had the chance to say anything. Shai felt relieved and cursed herself for feeling so vain. She always made fun of those Brighty girls that only cared for their appearance and after pretending to be one for so long she was afraid she was starting to become one.

"I worked at the theatre in Bright for many years when I was young," Mikko continued. "I did a lot of the technical stuff backstage and throughout the years I have managed to collect quite an impressive assortment of make-up."

"Are you braggin' cause you've got make-up?" Jasper asked confused.

"Let me finish first," Mikko snapped and Shai could see he was losing his patience. She was too. Waiting for Mikko to stop talking was driving her insane. She noticed that she was impatiently shifting her weight from foot to foot. "I'll be able to make her look bald, that should be enough to make her look like a man."

Shai didn't know if that was an insult, but she didn't care. Mikko walked out of the room and passed Jasper. She followed him and Jasper walked beside her.

She could feel his eyes bearing down on her, but she didn't want to look up and see him shaking his head at her. She was glad they were leaving tonight. They wouldn't need to be alone in their house giving him time to lecture her.

Mikko ran up the stairs and Shai and Jasper didn't know if they should follow him up there. They had never been up before and one quick look at the amount of clutter on the stairs told Shai she didn't want to go up. The caved in staircase at their place made her think that the stairs were going to crumble at any moment.

"You can't do this, Shai," Jasper told her.

She regretted not going up the stairs. This was the perfect time for Jasper to try and convince her to not do it.

"Why?" she snapped at him. "You always knew I was goin' to go into a camp to get Tegan and Todd. Why does it matter if you're beside me? You saw what that gas did last night. Everyone will be passed out and I'll just go get them. You being with me don't matter. Stop treatin' me like I can't do anything. I'm not useless."

Jasper backed away from her and looked hurt. It wasn't the first time she had told him this and she knew it wasn't going to be the last time.

"Shai, listen-" he started.

"Just have faith in me for once," she said.

"Fine."

There was an awkward silence between the two momentarily until Mikko came pounding down the stairs. He had a colourful box covered in yellow and purple stripes and walked right past them into the kitchen. Shai followed and Mikko pulled one of the stools out from underneath the counter.

"Sit," he ordered her and started pulling bottles out of the box and set them down on the counter.

She sat down and watched as Mikko sorted through the box. She knew Jasper was behind her, but she didn't want to turn around and look at him.

"You need to appear to be Officers if we get stopped tonight. I think the best time to hit them is when everyone will be asleep. All of the Rats sleep in the same building and the only security is a sliding door. It was the easiest part to hack into," Mikko explained to them. "The important thing is that if we get stopped by anyone, you two let me do all the talking. I know how to handle Officers."

Shai started to laugh under breath. Mikko is the only Brighty she knows that got kicked out of Bright. Talking to Officers must not be his strong suit. He sounded crazy to everyone.

"Go get changed into one of those uniforms," he told Jasper. "This will take a bit."

She sighed, as it seemed like they were never going to leave to go get Tegan. She heard Jasper walk away and the door closed behind him. Mikko grabbed a brush off of the counter and ripped the knots out of her hair. Shai's face winced in pain as he tried to run the brush through her thick tangled hair.

"When's the last time you brush this?" Mikko asked her.

"Last time I went to the Market," she said.

"You prettied up to go to the Market?"

"Well, Todd and I use to pretend to be Brighties when we went to the Market. It made stealing easier because no Officer would suspect us."

"Let me ask you this: was Todd arrested while pretending to be a Brighty?"

"I didn't say it was foolproof."

She heard Mikko chuckle and then he quickly twisted her hair up before putting a cap over top of it. Shai slipped her hand into her pocket and ran her fingers over the surface of Todd's pendant. She pulled it out and kept a tight grip on it.

Mikko grabbed another bottle and looked down at her hands.

"What's that you've got there," he asked as he started rubbing the lotion from the bottle over the cap on top of her head.

"It was Todd's," she told him. "He used to wear it all the time. He threw it at me before he was arrested."

"Can I see it?"

Shai hesitantly raised the pendant to him and Mikko snatched it from her. He examined it closely and handed it back to her. A smile appeared on his lips.

"This was Todd's?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Why?" she asked confused.

"Just wondering. It looks expensive and Rats usually don't hang on to these kinds of things before selling them."

"Okay," Shai said before snatching it back from him.

She continued to rub it in her hands as Mikko rubbed different lotions onto her head. By the time he was done Jasper came back into the house. Shai was shocked to see him in the red and black uniform with the strap to the gun across his chest. She never thought she would witness him like this. His hat hid most of his hair, so only a few stubbles of his light coloured hair was showing. The crisp white gloves covered his hands. If Shai saw him in the Slums she wouldn't even question whether or not he was an Officer. It almost scared her.

As soon as he saw Shai he started to laugh. It revealed his chip tooth and it was a nice reminder to her that he was Jasper and not an Officer.

"That's an interesting look on you, Shai," he told her.

She reached up to rub her scalp, but Mikko grabbed her wrist and made her stop. He pulled a small mirror out of the box and handed it to her.

She gasped when she saw her reflection. Her scalp was perfectly smooth and her hair wasn't visible anywhere. She thought for a moment that Mikko had actually shaved her head. Her light splatter of freckles across her nose and bright eyes were even more prominent without her usual dark hair draped across her face.

"Go get changed," Mikko told her dropping all of the bottles back into the box. "Then we'll leave."

With that Shai sprung off of the stool and ran to the door and ran back to her and Jasper's house. Her uniform was on the small round table in their kitchen. Shai stripped out of her clothes and put on the uniform. Her fingers were shaking as she did up the buttons on the jacket up. She couldn't wait to head out. It was already starting to get dark and she guessed that there was an hour left until Curfew.

She carefully put the hat on her head without destroying the work that Mikko had done. Her gun was leaning up against the wall and she put the strap across her chest. She took a quick look over at the mattress to see that Jasper had already put most of the clothes into the backpack and taken it with him. She left and made her way quickly back to Mikko's.

A large door was now open on the front of Mikko's house, and Shai could see Jasper and Mikko inside waiting around a car. She entered and Jasper slammed the trunk of the car closed. Mikko climbed into the backseat and Jasper opened up the driver's door.

"Front seat, Shai," Jasper told her.

Shai's lips curled into a smile and she slid into her seat. They were finally breaking Tegan out. Todd would soon be after.